To even name the speakers of the year and their subjects would necessitate the enlargement of our book, and to omit any of them may bring the author into peril of his life if he should meet any of those left out; but he must face the prospect of a martyr's end, by naming only a few. President Edwin Earle Sparks, of the Pennsylvania State College, gave a series of lectures on American history; Prof. Archer B. Hulbert on "The Military Conquest of the Alleghanies"; Prof. Stockton Axson on "Literary Leaders"; Dr. Andrew Sloan Draper, Superintendent of Education for New York State, spoke, also Prof. George Albert Coe, Prof. Clyde W. Votaw, and Dr. Richard M. Hodge—these four on subjects relating to education; Mr. Earl Barnes gave a course of lectures, besides teaching in the schools; Booker T. Washington, President Frank R. Sanders, Dr. P. S. Henson, Prof. Henry F. Cope, Mr. Ernest Hamlin Abbott, of The Outlook, and many more were with us in July, 1908.
In August we heard Prof. Richard Burton in a course of literary lectures; Dr. George Adam Smith, Richard G. Moulton, and J. M. Thoburn, Jr., a nephew of Bishop Thoburn, also Bishop Samuel Fallows of the Reformed Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, a son of the Harvard President. Mr. S. S. McClure gave an offhand conversational address on "The Making of a Magazine," the story of his own experience.
The Devotional Hour was by this year firmly fixed in the Chautauqua system. The Chaplain preached on Sunday morning, at the great Amphitheater service, and at ten o'clock for five days following gave an address on some religious topic. Among our chaplains during the season of 1908 were Dr. Charles E. Jefferson of New York, Prof. Herbert L. Willett of the University of Chicago, President Herbert Welch, and Dr. R. H. Conwell. The Recognition address to the graduating class of the C. L. S. C. was by President Faunce of Brown University on "Ideals of Modern Education."
This year a course in Esperanto, the proposed world-language, was conducted, and the second Esperanto Congress of America was held at Chautauqua. Not having studied the language and being too busy to attend the convention, the writer is unable to state whether the lectures were given in that tongue or in English, the inferior language which Esperanto is expected to displace. Probably two or three hundred years hence Shakespeare's plays, Milton's poems, and Mark Twain's stories will be known only in that language, English being a quarry for archæological research with about as many students as Greek or Sanscrit has to-day.
An event of 1901 which attracted crowds from all Chautauqua County and its surroundings was the historical pageant of scenes in the history of Chautauqua Lake. It included scenes from the Indian Wars before the Revolution, the French explorers, the British and American soldiers of the Revolutionary period, and the settlement of the shores. This was followed by the rendition of a play, The Little Father of the Wilderness, by Francis Wilson and his company. The concerts of the preceding year by the New York Symphony Orchestra, under Walter Damrosch, had been so successful that the management brought them for a second visit in 1910.
One distinguished visitor in 1910 was the Right Honorable James Bryce, Ambassador of Great Britain to our country. His lecture was on "History and Politics." Dr. S. M. Crothers gave four lectures in his own inimitable manner on "The One Hundred Worst Books." He proposed as an interesting question, "Suppose that twenty centuries hence, when the English language may be as dead as Latin and Greek are now, what authors in English literature will be remembered?" Director Bestor found time in the midst of his labors to give us a fine lecture on "Gladstone." Paul Vincent Harper, son of President Harper, spoke on "Life in Palestine" after a visit to that land. Dr. Griggs gave a course on "Social Progress." Distinguished visitors from the old country were Sir William Ramsay, the highest authority in the English-speaking world on the church in the New Testament age, and Lady Ramsay. Both lectured, Lady Ramsay on "The Women of Turkey." Mrs. Philip Snowden gave another course of lectures, maintaining fully her popularity. She was strongly in favor of the suffrage for women but as strongly opposed to the methods of the militant suffragettes. Another speaker who attracted attention, although his views were not accepted by the majority at Chautauqua, was the Secretary of the American Federation of Labor, Mr. John B. Lennon. On the questions pertaining to trade unions and collective bargaining, however, one who talked with the Chautauqua constituency was surprised to find so large a number of progressive thinkers taking the side of labor against capital.
The Chautauqua Devotional Hour was represented in the season of 1910 by Dr. Hugh Black, Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, Dr. G. A. Johnston Ross, and Charles D. Williams, who was now Bishop of Michigan.
It has been found that many are eager to enjoy the advantages of the Summer Schools at Chautauqua who are unable to meet the expense. To aid these, various gifts have been made from time to time. On old First Night in 1910 a system of fifty annual scholarships was established by setting apart the offering of that evening for this purpose, and the fund has since been increased from year to year.
In 1911, the Miller Bell Tower at the Point beside the Pier was dedicated. For years the chime of Meneely bells had stood in the belfry of the old building on the Pier. But the piles beneath it were becoming decayed and the bells by their weight and their movement racked the old edifice. Their removal was necessary and the Tower was built adjoining the wharf. A fine clock presented by the Seth Thomas Clock Company, and the chimes, were placed in the summit of the Tower which received the name "Lewis Miller Bell Tower." These bells ring five minutes before the lecture hours, and at certain times, morning, noon, and night, the chimes play familiar music. After the night bell, which may be either at 10 or 10.30, silence is supposed to reign throughout the grounds. One of the original peal of four bells, afterward enlarged to form the chime of ten bells, is named the Bryant bell, and is rung precisely at twelve o'clock noon on the first day of October as a signal for beginning the readings of the Chautauqua Circle. The name is in honor of William Cullen Bryant, in recognition of his interest in the C. L. S. C.
During the season of 1911 a number of illustrated lectures were given by Prof. R. W. Moore on "The Rhine"; by C. L. Harrington on "Aerial Navigation,"—a lecture fully up to date at that time, surprising to many who heard it and looked at the pictures. But that was before the great war, and the same lecture would be hopelessly behind the times in 1921. Mr. Henry Turner Bailey showed us "A Dozen Masterpieces of Painting," and Mr. Jacob A. Riis, "The Making of an American," Dr. Henry R. Rose exhibited "The Oberammergau Passion Play," and Dr. H. H. Powers, "Venice." Both President George E. Vincent and Director Arthur E. Bestor gave lectures; also Edmund Vance Cooke and Mr. Earl Barnes, Mr. Leland Powers impersonated stories and plays as nobody else could. Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip gave three lectures on "Banking," which proved far more interesting than most of us had anticipated. Dr. H. H. Powers told in a series of lectures the stories of five great cities, Athens, Rome, Florence, Paris, and London. Dr. Gunsaulus gave a series of lectures on "Some of the Great Plays of Shakespeare"; Prof. S. C. Schmucker, a series mingling science with history on "American Students of Nature,—Audubon, Agassiz, Gray and Thoreau." Dean George Hodges in the Department of Religion lectured in a course on "Christian Social Betterment."